Ace of all trades

I remember seeing a highlight of one of his touchdowns back in Week 2, and I saved a photo of him scoring another TD in Week 5 (first photo below on left); but it wasn't until a week after that, after reading an article from USA Today, that I started to take any notice of Laviska Shenault. With part of the article's headline reading "... football player chose his dreadlocks over hoops ...", I couldn't help but notice. That's the kind of headline I like to see.

Actually though, I hate it when an athlete is put in a position like that: cut off your dreadlocks, or else. I guess now, in this day and age of "anything goes" hairstyles for athletes, it happens much less often. But back when he was in high school in Texas a few years ago, it happened to Shenault. The school's basketball coach had a team rule that prohibited players from having their hair in dreads. And so Laviska, with his dreads too important to him to cut off, took the "or else" option, saying goodbye to basketball instead of his locks. And because he did, basketball's loss turned into football's gain, specifically the Colorado Buffaloes' gain.

FSU vs. The U? .... Nothin' new

For real this Turnover Chain thing the Miami Hurricanes have had going on these last two years has been so much fun that I'm surprised the NCAA hasn't passed a new rule that forbids it. For years college teams have rewarded players for making big defensive plays in various ways: perhaps with a WWE-style championship belt or a sledgehammer or any number of other things. But when The U introduced its Turnover Chain during the 2017 season, it pretty much left all other teams' devices of celebration behind in the dust.

Get an interception, or recover a fumble, or force a fumble that results in a turnover, and when you come off the field after the play a big, shiny, gold chain is draped around your neck. Weighing in at nearly 7 pounds, the Chain is too heavy to be a part of most players' personal collection of bling; but it's the perfect size to wear proudly on the sideline while celebrating your big play until it's time to take the field again. The Chain became nationally famous last year while the Hurricanes were racking up a whopping 31 turnovers, a total topped by only two other FBS teams. Evidently the lure of being honored so lavishly was too irresistible for Canes defenders to pass up.

2017 NFL House Calls

If you were to glance at a list of the NFL players who scored the most touchdowns in 2017, you would (if you were like me) notice that there was a player with dreads at the top of the list, and another one in the #2 spot on the list, and another one in the #3 spot, and another one tied for the #4 spot. You also would have noticed that of the 11 players who scored 10 or more TD, more have dreads (6) than not (5). Those 6 players with dreads combined to score 79 TD last season, and 46 other players with dreads had a combined 140 TD, meaning that a player with dreads took one to the house 219 times during the 2017 regular season. The total of 219 is just under 18% of the 1,225 touchdowns scored by everybody in 256 games.